


in a life where nothing seems real (I have found you)

by elizaham8957



Series: Tumblr prompts [9]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergent, Established Relationship, F/M, idk basically I'm just mad about canon and I'm over here trying to fix it, post 6x11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 16:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12112338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizaham8957/pseuds/elizaham8957
Summary: We almost lost him last time.Lydia’s own words to Scott and Malia were trapped in her head, churning and playing on repeat, forcing her to embrace the reality of the statement. They almost lost him last time. The last time something supernatural had come to Beacon Hills, Stiles had been erased from their memories and was almost completely lost to them. After everything they had gone through to get him back, Lydia was terrified of the reality of losing him again. And it could happen so easily. They had absolutely no idea what they were dealing with here, other than it was something that was dangerous enough that the Wild Hunt had been the only thing able to contain it.She knew Scott and Malia had a point, when they had said that Stiles would kill them if they didn’t call him. But the possibility of losing Stiles was too much for her. She’d gone through that once, and she couldn't go through it again. So no matter what, no matter how much she really wanted to, she knew she couldn’t call him.But still.





	in a life where nothing seems real (I have found you)

**Author's Note:**

> So, want to hear a fun story? I am so angry about the plot of 6b that I have dedicated way more time than I should to coming up with how I would fix it. Like, seriously. I had a two hour phone conversation with my sister last night talking about how I would make it better. 
> 
> That said, this is how I think that au would start. I've been toying with the idea of actually writing it, but I'm still not sure I want to undertake a project of that magnitude right now with school. Regardless, I think that if I *did* write it, it would probably start with this. 
> 
> This was written for a prompt on tumblr: "things you said when you were scared." I'm stilesssolo on there and on twitter, if you want to come vent about this season. 
> 
> Title's from Miss Saigon because, as you've probably noticed by now, I'm Broadway trash. Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoy!

_We almost lost him last time._

Lydia’s own words to Scott and Malia were trapped in her head, churning and playing on repeat, forcing her to embrace the reality of the statement. They almost lost him last time. The last time something supernatural had come to Beacon Hills, Stiles had been erased from their memories and was almost completely lost to them. After everything they had gone through to get him back, Lydia was terrified of the reality of losing him again. And it could happen so easily. They had absolutely no idea what they were dealing with here, other than it was something that was dangerous enough that the Wild Hunt had been the only thing able to contain it.

She knew Scott and Malia had a point, when they had said that Stiles would kill them if they didn’t call him. But the possibility of losing Stiles was too much for her. She’d gone through that once, and she couldn't go through it again. So no matter what, no matter how much she really wanted to, she knew she couldn’t call him.

But still.

Lydia had never felt such pure, primal fear as she had during that vision. When she’d reached out and touched the spiderwebs, fear had raced through her quicker than lightning, making every cell of her body scream and beg to _run, run as far away as possible._ Run from whatever this thing was that had managed to escape the Wild Hunt. Run so far and so fast that she would never feel as afraid as she had in that moment.

Even now, hours later, the fear still clung to her, twisting her stomach into knots and making her check corners and glance behind her nervously. As if something were there with her in her house, watching her every move.

She’d tried to calm herself down— she’d gone through her bags one more time, made sure she had everything she needed for MIT— even though she knew they couldn’t leave until they managed to defeat whatever new terror was lurking now in Beacon Hills, she was determined to make it to MIT still. Make it somewhere she would be able to hopefully lead a normal life for an extended period of time.

Somewhere much closer to Stiles that she currently was.

It wasn’t even that late out, but the sky was pitch black, the moon casting long, pale shadows outside her window. The tree in her lawn looked sharper and scarier, the empty street somehow seemed eerier, everything bathed in weak moonlight. She wasn’t sure if it was still the lingering feelings from her vision earlier or the sight of the dead hellhound in the woods, the bullet with the Argent crest stamped onto it— the echo of gunshots in that school corridor, the primal growl of a creature fighting for its life— but Lydia had never felt more on edge before.

Needless to say, when her phone rang, she jumped about five feet.

Her heart was still racing as she looked down at the illuminated screen, and she swore under her breath when she saw the contact picture lighting up her phone. _Stiles,_ lips on her cheek and arms around her as she took a selfie of them on the beach this summer, with his name displayed in bold letters across the top, trailed by a single heart emoji. In between getting terrifying visions and hunting down hellhounds in the woods, she had inadvertently been ignoring his text messages from earlier today. She had figured he’d be so busy with the internship that he would forget about it.

Sometimes she was still so conditioned from her old relationships that the amount of thoughtfulness and concern Stiles showed her blew her mind.

There was no way to gracefully reject his call, so she warily grabbed her phone, sitting down on her bed and answering the video chat. A moment later, his smiling face appeared on her screen. He was wearing pajamas, sitting on the bed in his dorm room— she forgot that he was still three hours ahead of her, and that it was almost midnight in Virginia. His eyes looked tired from his first day at the internship, but they also shined with a type of excitement that Lydia rarely saw reflected in them.

“Hey, Stiles,” she said, her voice low, and she could hear it tremble, still reflective of the residual fear lingering in her system. Seeing his smiling face just snapped something inside of her— she knew she couldn’t tell him what was happening, and that she couldn’t ask him to come back, but there was nothing she wanted more right now than to just see him in _person._

“Hey, Lyds,” he responded, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, his brow furrowed, eyes losing that light, carefree look.

“What’s wrong?” he immediately continued, looking at her with concern.

“Nothing,” she insisted, shaking her head. “We’re fine. _I’m_ fine.”

Stile gave her an unimpressed look, and she cursed his ability to read her so well. “Lydia,” he said, eyebrows raised. “You sound scared. What happened?”

“Nothing, Stiles,” she insisted. “It’s fine.”

“Lydia,” he insisted, voice persistent. “Is something happening? Is there another mythological creature that Scott is convinced he needs to protect everyone from?” She heard his words, registered their meaning, but she knew that deep down, he was convinced he had to protect Beacon Hills too. It had been hard for him to leave this place behind, no matter how much he was loving Virginia and DC and his internship. They were all tied to this town, whether they liked it or not.

“You look terrified, Lydia,” Stiles said, voice gentler. “What’s happening? Should I come back to Beacon Hills—?”

“No,” she said vehemently, finding her voice again. “No, stay where you are. We’re _fine.”_

“You’re not fine, Lyds,” he said, his tone of voice soft. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s _nothing,”_ she insisted again, even though she knew he could tell she was lying.

“Lydia,” he said, voice tired. “I can _tell_ you’re not okay. You look and sound _terrified,_ and I wasn’t going to mention that you’re clearly not on the road to drop off Scott, like you’re supposed to be, but… Please tell me,” he begged. “I just want to help you.”

“And I just want to protect you!” she snapped back, unable to contain it anymore. Stiles’s mouth immediately snapped shut, his expression conveying how taken aback he was. Lydia groaned, dropping her head forward into her hands, breaking eye contact with Stiles. When she did look up again, his eyes look so confused.

“We almost lost you last time,” she told him, voice breaking. He opened his mouth, probably to interject with something along the lines of “I’m fine,” but she continued. “I can’t risk losing you again, Stiles. I can’t go through that again.”

“Okay,” he said, voice soft. “I’m okay now, Lydia, don’t worry. But I’ll stay here, if you want me to,” he promised. “Just please tell me what’s scaring you.”

Lydia took a deep breath, the school hallway flashing before her again; she could practically feel the maze of cobwebs brushing up against her skin. “I had a premonition,” she admitted, voice low as she met Stiles’s eyes. “When we broke through the barrier, and got you out of the hunt… something else came out too.”

“What did you hear?” Stiles asked, and she squeezed her eyes shut, picturing herself in that hallway again.

“Bullet casings,” Lydia said. “Gun shots. Tons of them. A werewolf growling. And people screaming, from pure fear. _So_ much screaming.” She paused. “I was at the school, in a hallway. And it was covered in cobwebs. I could hear thing when I touched them.”

“Like how you hear things sometimes when you pluck strings,” Stiles supplied. She nodded.

“Something spoke,” she continued. “There was another hellhound. The one supposed to guard this _thing_ . We found him dead in the woods.” She shook her head slightly. “But I think it was him, who spoke. He said that it was supposed to ride with the hunt forever.” She met Stiles’s eyes again, his expression shocked. “I heard people who have never laid a hand on others before turning on each other. _Killing_ each other.”

“Jesus,” Stiles said, running a hand over his chin. He met Lydia’s eyes again, his expression grim.

“I felt— I have _never_ felt that scared, Stiles,” she told him. “When I touched the cobweb. I felt this pure, primal terror run through my body. And every single instinct I had told me to get as far away as I could.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what this thing does, but I think the terror was coming from _it.”_

“Lydia,” Stiles said, voice soft and sure. “You’re okay, alright? You’re safe right now. Scott and you and Malia are gonna figure this out, and I’m going to help. We’re going to fix this.”

“No,” she immediately said, shaking her head. “No, Stiles, you said you’d stay—”

“I’ll stay here,” he promised, eyes soft. “Okay? But I’m gonna help. You keep me informed, let me know whatever you can… the libraries here are crazy, okay? There might be something I find here that could help.”

“No, Stiles, please just stay out of it,” she begged him. Even if he was far away… she knew eventually he would get too invested, if he were involved. Eventually he wouldn’t be able to resist the pull back to Beacon Hills.

“It’s because of me, Lydia,” he said, sighing. “This thing got out because you guys rescued me. I’m going to help. I get to help keep you safe too, okay?” he said, eyes earnest. “If you’re protecting me, I’m still protecting you.”

“Okay,” she agreed, voice still wavering. Even now, with Stiles’s steady, comforting gaze locked on hers, she couldn’t shake that panicky feeling from her vision. She looked out her window again at the street— still nothing was there, even though she thought she could feel eyes on her.

“I love you,” he told her, words soft again, and she looked back to the screen of her phone. Seeing the look on his face, eyes bursting with concern and care for her, helped ebb the panic in her system a little bit.

“I love you too,” she assured him. He smiled at her, his grin comfortingly familiar.

“We’ll figure this out, Lyds, okay?” he said. “Whatever it is. We’ll find out how to stop it.”

“Okay,” she agreed. She still couldn’t shake that feeling— terror still clung to her like a thin veil, dancing right on the edge of her mind, but talking with Stiles— his words made her think that maybe everything would eventually be okay.


End file.
